Getting Started Creating Workshops and Programmes

Workshops and programmes are a great way to introduce extra income to your complementary practice.  They also provide clients with alternative and affordable ways to experience your approach.

When you start developing any new offering, keep it simple.  Start with the minimum viable product (MVP) and create your new workshop or programme with the basic features needed to satisfy your clients.

MVP comes from ‘The Lean Start-up’ by Eric Ries.  The idea is, you start simple and move fast.  It will stop you from getting caught up trying to make everything perfect before you launch anything.  Waiting for perfection means you will have lost sight of the core value for your clients and got caught up in doubts and fears.

A simple approach and providing the basic features do not mean you do a shabby job, it must work.  You must meet client expectations as people have minimum standards and it will reflect on your brand if they aren’t met.

Advantages of the MVP approach

• Produce it quickly as there will be fewer elements to create
• Test there is a demand for it before you create all singing all dancing version
• Avoid large investments of your time and money to find out it doesn’t work
• Gain insights from how your clients use it to identify any improvements needed
• Get new ideas to create other offerings

Beta test

A beta test is where you create your basic workshop, course or programme and invite people to participate at a reduced price.  You let them know it’s the first time you’re running it and part of the deal is for them to provide feedback.  You get the opportunity to make sure it works, is well received, to make any improvements needed and get testimonials for your marketing.

Start where you are

When you design your offering, start with what you have available now.  The technology, the skills and your knowledge and design it based on that.  If you start thinking you must understand how new fancy technology works before you do it, you will never finish!

7 steps to creating your MVP

1. Find your idea – what are you going to produce to solve a specific problem for your clients?

2. Outline it – keep it as simple as possible. Map out your idea and decide on the basic elements you can produce.  Write up an outline of what you want to do.

3. Validate it – offer it to your audience to find out if there is a need for it. Don’t take people’s word on it being a good idea, get them to sign up to a waiting list, or better still, pay to participate in the beta test.

4. Create it – take your outline and create the simplest version of your offering. You want to do as good a job as possible with what you have, keeping costs low.  You can pay a designer to create a masterpiece once you know it works.

5. Beta test it – run the first version and ask the participants for feedback.

6. Update and adapt – make the changes to your offering and add any flourishes to help it be a full and workable offering.

7. Sell it – this is now one of your offerings to clients to make an income from.

If you want to create a workshop, course or programme for your practice, book a discovery call and find out how I can help you.